Made in USA

as for longevity, Zinn's book came out by 1980, which is when your chart starts.  The period that he covers, longevity had a steady upwards rise.  And, even with your chart, "comparable countries" also would be capitalist countries... and yes Sweden is a capitalist country.   That U.S. longevity has dipped recently, that's only recently and is no indication of the long-term trend.

As far as those particular Marxists are concerned, they characterize, reading the article, that Zinn claims economic exploitation as some sort of "happy accident," which he certainly does not claim.  

Zinn is not a "pure" Marxist - which actually is impossible to define, as Marx himself constantly shifts about throughout his writing career, an uncomfortable fact that many avowed "Marxists" avoid - and I did not claim he was one; but he does have the Marxist bent and is not a fan of capitalism (though I'm sure he enjoyed the royalties from the marketing and sale of his book...).

No doubt he enjoyed the royalties as anyone rightly would. They helped to keep him going, getting out his message, and probably feathered his nest egg some. 

I seriously doubt anyone is a pure anything nowadays and just an amalgam of various disciplines. Take economist Richard Wolff for instance. An American economist of good standing with Marxist underpinnings who believes in a better form of capitalism for all. 

I always hated pigeonholing people. 

All the best,
Nonoise

Buy USA.

Joined the USN in 1959, dumbly unknowing, between the Korean and Vietnamese wars.

Fortunate to have visited virtually all of the Mediterranean countries of Europe, plus some of the Asian and Middle eastern countries as well.

A decade and a half after WWII, German pill boxes and the ruins of the war were still quite evident evident and profoundly impressive for a 17 year old "Warrior". Not.

Quite amazing for a city slum kid, who 8  years old, impatiently watched  "Industry on Parade" and war newsreels from the Pacific, Europe and Africa while waiting for the 17 cent Saturday cartoon show to start.

So after a peaceful enlistment I return home (quite hung ho) to start college on the GI Bill and to be frustrated by naive 18 year olds burning flags and protesting the Vietnam War.

My first Eco 101 course taught me one basic rule that I have never forgotten.

Every dollar spent is a vote for what you personally believe in - taught not in a political sense, but an economic sense.

So I to have read Zinn nearly twenty years ago and like any person of average intelligence, I compared what he states as fact and how he writes it to my own evaluation and understanding of history based on what I have learned before Zinn.

What Zinn has to do with the quality of sound through variously sourced audio equipment?  I dunno. Don't care.

But when I cast MY dollar votes I try very hard not to support a non-democratic, tyrannical, radical or American hating country.  I don't care what their stuff sounds like.  I will do nothing to contribute to the success of such a country.

If you seek refuge or comfort from Zinn, if you do not believe in supporting the industry and workers of your country and the friends of your country as best you can, if you just do not care about anything except how you brain interprets the sound your ears collect, by all means cast your dollar votes as you see fit.

Please also remember you can still vote with your feet.

A People's History of the United States (2015, first edition 1980) walks you through the United States' past from the perspective of the marginalized, the disenfranchised and the oppressed. These blinks describe a history of uprisings, protests and activism in the face of a government built for the rich.

The Zinn Education Project approach to history starts with the premise that the lives of ordinary people matter — that history ought to focus on those who too often receive only token attention (workers, women, people of color), and also on how people's actions, individually and collectively, shaped our society.

Zinn's point, however, is that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” can be forms of control. Put another way, he's arguing that the Founding Fathers pacified their people by giving them just enough freedom and power not to rebel, while still preserving an unjust status quo.

I studied History & Political Science in the early 70s at UCLA (double major).  I had an excellent professor on dialecticism of Hegel, Marx and Freud (Wolfenstein, a protege of Angela Davis).  Unlike today, I was treated with respect by the professor and deemed a bourgeois liberal Jew (I'm rather Conservative and religious).  

My comment is that Zinn's attitude is antithetical to my view of history and the United States/consitution/bill of rights.  Zinn's good points concern the ordinary people to compose society and their lifestyles/effect on it and history.  However, he obliterates the positive characteristics which underline the society, which guide it, which nuture it or destroy it.  Overall, United States has a progressive and overwhelmingly positive experience for Americans and the world.  Just because of it's many faults and failings does not mean it should be condemned as he does the founding fathers.  

While one can learn much concerning our history, his attitude is a negative one and should be discarded.  The benefit of learning of the potential for governmental and elitist misconduct is to rectify it.  All the negative conditions which suppressed and hurt American society of the centuries are learning points for today.  While our current society is imperfect, the progressive/socialist/communist movements of today can only destroy and not elevate.  Despite the potential and actual problems presented by free markets and capitalism, it is a superior system to that which Zinn professes to displace it.  

One of my specialties was bureaucracy in  government.  This is the most difficult area to reform as it is entrenched and stubbornly persists in nearly all societies.